Is the local church essential or just a nice option for those who like fellowship and face-to-face instruction?
What is it the church offers that you can't accomplish with just a Bible and a solid reading plan, or online church services for that matter? We'll hear the answer today on Truth for Life as Alistair Begg teaches from Ephesians chapter 4 verses 14 and 15. We find ourselves at a fascinating point in history—in the history of our nation and in the development of Christianity. We now live in a culture that has embraced, essentially, religion without God—unless you want to call the earth God, which of course many do.
We have structures of religious orthodoxy that are devoid of any convictions concerning the Bible, the divinity of Jesus, and so on. And as a result of that, men and women have decided that if they are to have any kind of spiritual life at all, then it can be of their own contriving and of their own making—a kind of special designer religion that includes the bits and pieces that they like and leaves aside anything that they find distasteful to them. And so, a local congregation such as our own is confronted with that kind of environment. We live in that world, and we live also in the world of the Bible. And so, as we turn to the Bible, we discover that the Bible speaks to that world in which we live. It spoke into the world of first-century Ephesus, and it speaks into the world of twenty-first-century Cleveland. I say all of that because Paul is greatly concerned for this particular church.
That's why he writes to it. He had warned them as he took his leave from them that there would be for them real challenges ahead. He said, in fact, you will discover that there will be people from actually inside your congregation who will arise, and they will draw people away after them. And he said, The thing that will stand you in good stead is, if you remember, that I did not sell myself to you, he says, but I labored tirelessly to disclose to you the entire counsel of God, in order that when the days that will inevitably come, come, you will be able to stand. And so, in the course of writing to them and establishing for them an understanding of what is taking place in them and among them, he has laid down this section to which we've come—these foundational word ministries, the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists, and then the responsibility of the pastor-teacher.
And he, Paul, understood that it was because he had fulfilled that role in Ephesus that the church had been established, and it would be on the basis of that that the church would be sustained. To lose that voice would be to lose not simply the voice of the preacher but to lose the very voice of God. Now, as we said this morning, this clearly means that our understanding and our expectation of the preaching of the teaching of the Bible is far more significant than the notion of simply listening to somebody giving a lecture, or somebody to whom we're invited to come and listen as they have some interesting ideas, or they have an inspirational talk for us, or something to set us up for the week.
No! We are actually discovering that when the Word of God is faithfully taught, the voice of God is really heard. Now, I say to you—and I'm not a prophet or the son of a prophet—I do believe there is a crisis in contemporary evangelicalism. It's not new.
It's been going on for some time. And it is directly related—not exclusively to this, but directly related—to a lack of confidence, to a loss of confidence in the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. A loss of confidence that is first of all in the pulpit and then in the pew. If the man in the pulpit loses confidence in God's authority and his Word, in the absolute sufficiency of all that he has provided for us in Scripture, then in short order the congregation will follow his lead. If he has decided that it is too hard to say these things, if he has decided that he wants to be liked more than listened to, if he's concerned that the community around will think wrongly about the church, if we say these hard things that Jesus has said, then he will be tempted and they with him simply to capitulate to the culture around them. But I want to say something to you tonight, and you can pass this on to all the young pastors with whom you have any influence at all.
If a church is to be truly successful and useful, it must be unlike anything else we found in life. So that the notion of a monologue—which people say, well, you can't listen to a monologue. We're not listening, ultimately, to a monologue. We're involved in a dialogue. But the dialogue is not this way. The dialogue is from here to here. So that the Spirit of God conducts a dialogue in the listeners to the Word of God, which he has decided he's deigned to use a frail, stammering tongue to convey, thereby declaring, as Luther says, his humility by hiding himself in the voice of a mere man, thereby causing people to say, then, why do I receive it as I receive it?
Because it's not just a talk. It is a direct encounter with God himself through the Word which he has ordained, inspired, left inscripturated, provided in the apostolic writings, and given to us today to proclaim. And the reason it is so important in this section is because it has to do with the maturity of the people of God. And so, in verse 14, what will maturity be like? It is that we might attain to the unity of the faith the knowledge of the Son of God, go to mature manhood, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Well, three things as quickly as I can. Number one, maturity means that we will no longer be like children. Children are children—all sizes of them. They tend to be wobbly, especially tiny ones.
They wobble. Children are easily distracted. And children respond to what is immediately most appealing to them—things that may not even be in their best interests. They're susceptible to what is immediately available.
They have no sense of delayed gratification. Right? Now, if you just wait for an hour, we'll be able to do this. No!
I want to do this right now, and I don't care about an hour. So Paul says, we don't want to be like children. He's speaking in spiritual terms. He says, in other words, instead of being wobbly, you need to be marked by doctrinal stability. Paul says it's very, very important that you have a solid doctrinal base, no longer like children, forever changing their minds—changing your mind about what you believe, changing your mind about the doctrine of Scripture, changing your mind about the doctrine of God, changing your mind about the doctrine of man, changing your mind about the nature of marriage, changing your mind about God's authority in all things.
We're not to be like children in that way. Changing our minds, because we're attracted now by just the latest thing that has come out, like the kinks whom I like to mention. One day he's in polka dots.
The next day he's in stripes, because he's a dedicated follower of fashion. You meet Christians like this everywhere you go. You meet them one year, and they're on this great track.
You meet them another month or two later, they moved on to another. They read another book, they attended another event, they processed another seminar. And they don't seem to have anything that will keep them absolutely just coming back to dead center, because they've never actually been grounded in the Scriptures. No longer children tossed to and fro by the waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. So Paul's concern is not simply that these folks wouldn't have a settled conviction about things, not simply that they are distracted, but by the underlying deceit which finds its source in the serpent, who in the garden deceived Eve by his great cunning.
And what was his line? Did God really say? Constantly undermining the Word. When Paul writes to Timothy about those who were lying in wait to deceive, as he says, you'd better be aware of the fact that there are those who are lying in wait to deceive as the antidote, he turns them to the Word of God itself. Now, church history—and indeed, I have to say, sadly, the history of our own fellowship—makes it perfectly clear to us that men and women are initially swept off their feet by misinterpretation, and unless corrected, they end up with a mind deceived. Initially, it comes to you, Pastor, I'm not sure that I agree with that interpretation. The concern is not whether it's my interpretation. The concern is, is this what the Bible says? I understand that you don't like the interpretation as it relates to the structure within marriage—the headship of the husband and the role of the wife and so on. I get that. You don't like that.
That's okay. We need to look at the Bible and see what it says. Misinterpretation is the starting point, and unless arrested, it's not too long before deception takes hold and people have gone on their way. Now, you see, the stabilizing influence which is identified in this passage and called for in this verse is that which comes about by the ongoing, persistent, faithful exposition of Scripture rightly understood and applied. It's God's Word being taught, believed, meditated upon, and applied, which saves us from the immaturity that falls victim to the last seminar or fad or podcast. What Paul is saying is this. We are not to be like those who do not know their own minds, like those who never come to settled convictions. All right? That's the first.
I've spent a long time on that, but I can speed up. We are no longer to be like children. Secondly, we are growing up into Christ, verse 15.
Instead of going down that road, succumbing to the cunning and the craftiness that's all around us, we will speak the truth in love and grow up in every way, into him who is the head, into Christ. Now, Paul is not giving guidance here on human anatomy and physiology, because the picture is strange, isn't it? We grow up into him, grow up into the head, and so on.
Clearly, what he's doing is he's expecting that we will be able to make sense of this. He's explaining how the body of the Lord Jesus grows. He's pointing out that the center, that the object, that the goal of the church is found in our union with Christ. United with Christ, we're brought into union with one another. To be built up in terms of the bodybuilding to which we refer this morning is to grow up into Christ-likeness.
It is to become increasingly marked by the characteristics of the Lord Jesus. And the process that's involved is speaking the truth in love. Now, most of us, if we've been around any time, know this phrase. In fact, I hear it trotted out quite often. I do it myself, usually out of context. I'm not sure if I've ever heard anybody use this phrase as it is actually used here. Most of the time, people use it as a justification for saying something kind of uncomfortable to a brother or sister.
And they will say, Well, this is what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to speak the truth in love. Which is where we have it in this verse. Which, of course, it's always good to speak the truth in love in that context. But the context here is not that.
What has he just been saying? In verse 14, he says, there are people who are involved in error and deceit. You are involved in truth and love. These folks do not love the people to whom they speak. If they did, they would tell them the truth.
They don't love them. They're full of error, they're full of deceit, and their intention is to harm them, not to help them. So, just as error and deceit sleep, as it were, in the same double bed, so do truth and love.
And the balance, of course, is absolutely crucial. Now, John Stott talks about what he refers to as the truth gang. And he says there are people who are so always concerned about the truth that as soon as they get just the sniff of heresy at all of any kind, quotes, their nose begins to twitch, their muscles ripple, and the light of battle enters their eyes. It's just like they exist for a fight, you know? They're everywhere.
I see you didn't use the King James version this morning. I'm sorry. Well, you can be sorry if you like, but, you know, and before you know it, here we go. And usually they'll say, I'm only speaking the truth in love.
Okay, well, thank you for that. But at the opposite extreme, the people say, well, we're not really the truth brigade. We're the loving group.
We're so loving. We're so loving that we're prepared to just about sacrifice every central truth of biblical revelation that exists in order that everyone might know just how loving we are. No, it can't be. Both of those approaches are unbalanced. Both of those approaches are unbiblical. Truth becomes hard if it's not softened by love, and love becomes soft if it's not strengthened by truth.
That's what Paul is saying. It is as the truth of God's Word absorbed as you become immersed in it, in the expressions of the love of God. And that little phrase, in love, comes again and again in Ephesians. It comes at the very beginning, in verse 4 of chapter 1, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love. That's verse 17 of chapter 3, chapter 4, with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love. In love.
It's really pretty straightforward. We'll go to our last point. So that we are not remaining as children, that we instead are growing up into Christ, and that we are doing our part properly. The whole body is joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped.
There you have that word again. When each part is working properly, it makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. In other words, each part of the body, in its own particularly God-ordained way, exists to help the other parts. It is from the head that the harmonious functioning of a body takes place. That is true in terms of human physiology, isn't it? But the harmony of Christ's body is under his headship. It is held together by all of the joints that he has graciously provided. It grows into a proper functioning reality. It comes to its full maturity in love as each part does its work.
Maybe we can put it in this way as we think of the body. Eat up. Grow up. Show up. Step up.
Eat up. Make sure you have a daily diet of God's Word. Grow up into Christ.
Don't be a baby. Show up when the Word of God is preached, when the people of God gather, when the sacraments are celebrated, when the opportunity to invite friends and neighbors is there for us. And step up. Step up. Take your place, nourished by the Word of God, equipped, enabled. And let me come full circle and tell you this. None of this—none of this—will ever be accomplished by the online church.
None of this. Because if you want to turn church into a cell phone experience, as increasing numbers do—I mean, why would I want to come? I mean, if I come, I'm gonna have to sit next to somebody. I don't want to sit next to somebody. I want to sit where I want to sit. And plus, I can hear a lot better.
I've got my earphones in, and I like it that way. I can have coffee, and you won't let me have coffee in there. What's the problem? We love coffee. Hard-nosed, no coffee in the big room. What's that about? Okay, go on your phone.
Do it on your phone. You can do it with no involvement, no opportunity for service, no responsibility for discipline, and no pastoral care. Just create for yourself a highly privatized understanding of the Christian faith and realize that such a notion is an embarrassing travesty of New Testament Christianity. Our selfishness is such that we're tempted just to go our own way, to mature on our own. And when we embrace that notion, then a gathering like this—and particularly maybe even a Sunday evening gathering like this, from that perspective—just becomes an optional extra.
Well, I suppose we could, but it doesn't really matter if we do or we don't. He's just gonna give a talk. Just something inspiring.
Hopefully it won't be too long. Well, what's this stuff about the voice of God is hidden in the preacher's voice. I came across something that I've asked to put up on the screen, and we'll end with this. I'm not gonna ask you to read it out, but I want you to see it.
I thought it was very helpful, and I thought that it might be something that we could have for ourselves in the privacy of our own homes. Now, let me read this to you. This we could call a kind of joining-in prayer.
You know, when we talk about getting connected? Here's a getting-connected prayer. Almighty God, our heavenly Father, by your grace in Jesus Christ and in the power of your Holy Spirit, please help me to be prayerfully holy and joyfully obedient to your Word. And so, as a member of my church, in submission to its leadership to believe and proclaim the gospel that Christ is my loving Savior and living Lord, attend regularly my Sunday congregation and appropriate midweek small group, contribute my prayer, time, and talents to our church life and outreach, give sacrificially for the gospel ministry of our church and its mission partners. In the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen.
And when the people of God, either in that prayer or something like it, take seriously these things, then I think we can say that we're paying attention to the Bible as we have it, and that we have every reason to believe that God will honor his Word and use us as he sees fit. Because the task that is before us is a huge task, and it isn't finished. It can't be finished. It can't be finished till Jesus comes. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg, a sermon he has titled Time to Grow Up. Today's message wraps up a brief study in the book of Ephesians. If you'd like to hear Alistair teach through the entire book of Ephesians, you can watch or listen to this comprehensive study for free.
Search a study in Ephesians on our website at truthforlife.org, or you'll find it easily in the mobile app. Now, as all of us are aware, we're living in a time of accelerated social change, and that change is not in the direction of biblical Christianity. That's one reason we're recommending a book today called Future Proof, how to live for Jesus in a culture that keeps on changing.
It's a book that takes a compelling look at the rapid pace of change we're currently experiencing and the high levels of anxiety it creates for people who are concerned about what comes next. The title Future Proof reminds us that Christians need not fear because the future of Christ's church is fail-proof. It will prevail. Jesus himself assures us. Learn how to spread the message of hope as you ask for your copy of the book Future Proof. It's yours today when you donate to Truth for Life at truthforlife.org slash donate.
Thanks for listening. There are people today who dismiss Christianity as being overly restrictive, while others claim that it offers total freedom. Monday, we'll begin a study in 1 Corinthians where we'll discover the true nature of Christian freedom. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
